Moon express plans to mine the Moon surface closer to reality

[JEMC]

AbbathTheGrim said:

JEMC said:

From Rocket Lab website

http://www.rocketlabusa.com

Electron is a two stage vehicle that uses Rocket Lab’s Rutherford liquid engine on both stages.

The first Electron launch is planned for 2015, with commercial operations scheduled to begin in 2016. At a cost of $4.9M Electron is the most affordable dedicated launch service for small satellites to Low Earth Orbit.

If the first launch is planned for 2015 (we're already in October, shouldn't they have done that already?), I doubt they'll be able start their operations in 2016, at least if they want them to succeed.

And the rockets are made to launch 150Kg satellites to low Orbit, which is far, far away from the Moon.

The end game for them is to look for rare materials on the lunar surface:

MoonEx aims to scour moon for rare materials

The Silicon Valley start-up is building machines with NASA scientists that are designed to search the lunar surface for precious metals and scarce metallic elements.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/08/business/la-fi-moon-venture-20110408

I read that, thanks.

But the rocket they plan to use can only put satellites up to 150Kg into a low Earth orbit. Going from there to the Moon still takes a lot of work, and their plan to use a secondary satellite (to which the Lunar robot will attach) to impulse the whole thing into the Moon is not an easy one.

I really doubt they'll be able to make it by 2017, and as haxxiy said, it would cost many millions ($5M just for the launch) for only a few kilograms of ore. This is just to proove that it can be done, but not that it's worth doing it.